Former Sen. Ben Sasse says he was diagnosed with stage-four pancreatic cancer
Former Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., announced Tuesday that he had been diagnosed with “stage four metastatic pancreatic cancer,” writing in an X article that the diagnosis is “a death sentence.”
“Last week I was diagnosed with stage four metastatic pancreatic cancer and I am going to die,” Sasse, 53, wrote in a lengthy post. “Advanced pancreas is a nasty thing; it’s a death sentence. But I’ve already been sentenced to death before last week too – we all do it.”
“It is difficult for someone who is willing to work and build, but even more difficult as a husband and father,” Sasse later wrote, going on to praise his wife and three children.
Sasse represented Nebraska in the Senate from 2015 until early January 2023, when he resigned to become president of the University of Florida. Sasse resigned as university president last year because of his wife’s memory problems and epilepsy.
Sasse, a staunch conservative and self-described “constitutional warrior,” was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial on charges of inciting insurrection. Only three of those Republicans — Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana — remain in the Senate. Trump was acquitted.
“I will have more to say. I will not go down without a fight,” Sasse wrote. “A subpart of God’s grace is found in the breathtaking advances science has made in recent years in immunotherapy and much more. Death and dying are not the same thing – the process of dying is still something to experience. We zealously embrace a lot of gallows humor in our home, and I’m committed to doing my part to run through the irreverent tape.”
